Who are the main characters? A man (An Agony. As Now.).

What do you know about the topic/story you are reading? It is a poem written during the civil rights movement.

What can you imagine that is not specifically outlined? I can imagine the desire to be someone else. The way this poem starts out it can speak to a lot of people who are not happy with who they are inside.

What do you think about what you read? I thought this was a cry for help. I thought a poet like figure was describing his distain for his own thoughts and feelings, and the more he noticed them the more pain he felt from them.

 How do you feel about what you read? What is your emotional response? I feel like his exploration of his internal self-being was creating hostile feelings. For example, lines 19 through 31 he mentions “pain” and “Or pain” several times as a theme he was experiencing. Also he battles with the notion of “flesh” versus “soul.” It is as if he is struggling to come to terms with who he is inside or who he wants to be, versus who he sees himself to be or who the world sees him as being. This conflict causes him great pain and discomfort. He further states “I am inside someone who hates me. I look out form his eyes.” This self loathing creates feelings inside that he does not like and in fact he references later by saying “It burns the thing inside it. And that thing screams.” I feel bad for him to view his self this way. I know people who have very low self-esteem and this poem made me think of them and how they feel about themselves. Those who have low self-esteem tend to be very hard on themselves and tend to view themselves with great pain and discomfort. They look at themselves and do not recognize the person in the mirror, which I felt like that is what this man was experiencing in this poem. He gave me the impression that he was a lost soul and everything beautiful in his life was corrupt. He was not comfortable in his own skin.

What do you want to learn more about? I want to know why he felt this way? What makes him self-hate the way he comes across in this poem? Was there a specific event that happened or a series of events to trigger this kind of thinking?

Think about the experiences you have just read about. How would you react if these events happened to you? I am not sure what specific events happened to this man. However, I do sympathize with his feelings about himself. We do not always enjoy ourselves, how we behave, or carry ourselves, so I can relate to his feelings about himself. We all must discover who we are and that can cause us to realize some not so nice things about ourselves. Also in trying to find ourselves, which I think is a life-long journey as we change our views and perspectives over time, so that we never really know who we are as a whole person. Instead, we only understand who we are at that moment in time, because as we change our views will change, so each revelation is a snap-shot of ourselves.

How does this reading relate to your own life? It reminds me we are not always going to like who we are, or we might not like everything we do or say. So for me it is a good reminder to take these feelings to heart but do not let them consume you. It is alright to be upset with your behavior, but learn from it and move on. Do not let yourself constantly dwell on this mistake and let it consume who you are, instead use it as fuel to better yourself so that next time you will act more in line with your expectations. No one is perfect and we cannot try to be perfect, so we nee to be open-minded towards learning from our actions. Also we have to understand that we are living-beings, which means we are constantly changing and not static. Thus, if you don’t like who you are today you have the chance to adjust that moving forward and even if you don’t consciously make adjustments over time change will happen through diffusion from outside influences.